BALTIMORE — There will be no Lombardi Trophy waiting for Eli Manning to hoist tonight at M&T Bank Stadium. The Giants don’t need Manning to be MVP of the Super Bowl. They need him to be MVP of Giants-Ravens.

From the first time the ball and the season is placed in his hands to the last time, Manning doesn’t only need to be better than Joe Flacco, he needs to be the best player on the field. Because every possession now is a two-minute drive at the end of the Super Bowl.

Such is the mandate of the franchise quarterback. These are the big games, these are the big moments, when this team and its fans turn their lonely eyes to Manning and ask him to remind them why he is an elite quarterback, at the end of a season when he has not been elite.

When one win leaves your team one win from the playoffs.

When one loss likely turns your team from defending champion to ex-champion.

Quoth the ravenous quarterback: Nevermore.

Tom Coughlin can’t build a bridge all the way to New Orleans if Manning doesn’t have EZ Pass.

The more Manning has the ball in his hands, the less Ray Rice has it in his. The more Manning scores, the more Jason Pierre-Paul and Osi Umenyiora can tee off on Flacco and wreck the game.

The Giants don’t need Manning to be the perfect 10. They need him to be great.

And that is his mindset.

“You approach it as, ‘Hey, we gotta play great,’ ” Manning said. “You gotta just make the plays that are there, play smart football. … Baltimore plays a lot of close games, so we gotta get the game into the fourth quarter and try to make our best plays then.”

I said to Manning: “But you have to play great, correct?”

“Everybody has to play great,” he said. “So, for me to play great, offensive line, running backs, receivers, everybody has to do their part.”

Everybody needs him to silence the crowd if and when Ray Lewis’ inspirational presence whips it into a frenzy.

Quoth the ravenous quarterback to the hostile crowd: Nevermore.

One game to win.

One quarterback to win it.

Their quarterback.

“I see the same focus on a weekly basis, because he’s trained himself to be that way,” Coughlin said, “but there isn’t any question about games of this nature where he’s willing to do whatever he has to do to be in position to help us win.”

One game to win.

One quarterback to win it.

Their quarterback.

“You’re never out of a game when you have Eli at quarterback,” Stevie Brown said.

One game to win.

One quarterback to win it.

Their quarterback.

“When his back’s against the wall, how he answers, and just how he leads our team,” Prince Amukamara said, “I think he’s like the best leader that I’ve ever been around — not too vocal, but not too quiet, and speaks when he’s supposed to, speaks when it’s necessary, doesn’t just blow smoke up your booty.”

One game to win.

One quarterback to win it.

Their quarterback.

“He’s proven he can do it, he’s an elite quarterback, and he’s our leader,” David Baas said, “and I feel like in games like this, they step up. Wouldn’t want anybody else back there.”

One game to win.

One quarterback to win it.

Their quarterback.

“If we do our job on defense, then we always have a chance,” Mathias Kiwanuka said.

The Giants learned they had run out of chances late in the fourth quarter on the last day of the 2010 regular season while beating the Redskins at FedEx Field when the scoreboard showed the Packers had beaten the Bears.

“That’s why you need to control things and not worry about others helping you out,” Kevin Boothe said.

What is the state of the bridge right now?

“Under construction but it’s almost done,” Victor Cruz said. “Come after this game, the bridge should be complete, hopefully, and we’ll all walk across and connect it and get to the other side.”